JNU row: Left to hold nationwide protests

Accusing RSS and BJP of making "false allegations", Left parties today said they will hold nationwide protests next week against the alleged "anti-national" tag being given to them by Hindutva forces.
After a meeting of six Left parties here today, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters that the protests will be held between February 23 and 25.
He said a delegation comprising leaders of Left parties and MPs from JD(U), RJD and NCP will call on President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his intervention in the row even as he stressed that JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar must be released forthwith".
"On the basis of false allegations, the RSS-BJP have mounted an all-India attack against Indian people, targeting the Left. This anti-national label they want to give to all others except themselves is something completely unacceptable.

"So, Left parties have decided to hold an all-India protest campaign against what the RSS-BJP is doing under this Government's patronage," Yechury said.
Targeting right-wing forces on the issue, he said those who "glorify" Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse as a national hero, are in "no position" to term Left leaders as "anti-national".

Referring to the decision that all central varsities will fly tricolour atop a 207-feet tall mast on their campuses to signify a "strong India", Yechury took a dig at the Centre saying such "whipping of jingoism" will not earn it "credible" points on nationalism.
"The size of the tricolour in our hearts and the comrades of the Left is much larger than any size this government may hoist in any university," Yechury, flanked by other Left leaders, said.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Left leaders, along with MPs of
NCP, JD(U) and RJD, will meet President Pranab Mukherjee in the evening, seeking his intervention in the JNU row being Visitor of the university.
"We will convey the decisions taken by Left parties along with other democratic secular parties who are present in Parliament to the President. The President is the Visitor of the JNU.
"He has and he should in that capacity as the Visitor of the university intervene to stop this sort of a direct insurrection against the Indian Constitution that the RSS-BJP have launched under the patronage of the Modi government," Yechury said.

Besides Yechury and Raja, the meeting was attended by CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and S Ramchandran Pillai, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, CPI(ML)-Liberation's Swapan Mukherjee, RSP leader Abani Roy, AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas and Pran Sharma of SUCI(C).